Consumer content

MTV will soon start to sell ads for music videos owned by Warner Music Group, the companies announced on Wednesday.

MTV will have exclusive rights to Warner Music's video ad inventory, Warner said in a statement. The move comes less than a year since Warner signed a similar agreement with Outrigger Media.

Rumors began circulating last week that Warner Music was shopping for a new means to sell ads. A music industry source said that Warner Music had spoken to music video portal Vevo about the possibility of that service selling Warner's ads.

Following a lengthy contract dispute … Read more

Google is among the biggest proponents of a collection of Web technologies that reproduce many important features of Adobe Systems' Flash, but it's not yet time for regime change at YouTube.

One of the most important parts of the upcoming HTML5 standard is support for video that can be built directly into Web page without requiring a plug-in such as Flash Player. Other open standards such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for formatting, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and Web Open Font Format (WOFF) for typography can mimic Flash features, but Flash's ability to deliver streaming video to multiple … Read more

Hulu, the online TV and film portal, has finally rolled out a subscription service, according to a note posted to the site on Tuesday.

For $9.99 a month, subscribers of Hulu Plus get access to a full season's worth of their favorite TV shows--and even past seasons in some cases--and "not just a handful of trailing episodes" that the free-version of Hulu offers, according to CEO Jason Kilar, who wrote the note.

Hulu Plus marks the first time the service has charged for content and it's arrival has been long anticipated. Supported by Disney, NBC … Read more

Hoping to stem the tide of dropped calls and slow downloads for its mobile customers, AT&T said Monday that it has completed a project to upgrade and improve its 3G service in New York City.

AT&T's upgrade has devoted more space on its airwaves to the company's 3G coverage, specifically in Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. As a result of the upgrade, the company said it expects customers in these areas to see better 3G wireless voice and data performance, especially during peak hours. AT&T added that it's already witnessed … Read more

The latest changes to the MapQuest site are designed for travelers who believe a trip is as much about the journey as it is about the destination.

The mapping and direction service launched a host of new options on Tuesday that the company hopes will make its site more intutive and help people plan and discover new places as they travel the roads.

To start the journey, MapQuest has simplified its search box for locating directions and maps. The new, more user-friendly interface resembles the ones you'll find at Bing Maps and Google Maps--probably not a coincidence. Type your … Read more

Amazon has updated its Kindle iPhone app to add embedded audio and video to its e-books, a feature that can now be seen and heard in a small sampling of titles, from "Rick Steves' London 2010" to "Best of the Beatles for Acoustic Guitar."

People who use the free Kindle app on their iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad devices can choose from 13 different e-books, all priced at $9.99, to get a taste of the new video-and-audio feature.

The titles released Sunday include five travel books from author Rick Steves and publishing house Avalon Travel, … Read more

People are increasingly relying on their mobile phones to deliver maps and directions on the go, according to ComScore.

Data released by ComScore on Friday discovered that 14 percent of all mobile phones users in the U.S., or 33.5 million people, accessed maps on their devices at least once a month over the three months ended April, a 44 percent rise from the same period in 2009.

The number of mobile users who retrieved maps one to three times a month rose 47 percent to 17.1 million, while those accessing maps once a week climbed 60 percent … Read more

Porn sites may soon be able to tag themselves with a .xxx address now that ICANN has given the new domain name its initial OK.

After denying several requests over the years for a new .xxx top-level domain, ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) finally relented Friday by giving the new domain its conditional approval.

ICM Registry, which would manage and sell the new domain name to porn sites, has waged a long struggle to get .xxx accepted by ICANN as a top-level domain, only to get a thumb's down at each turn. ICM's Chairman … Read more

Some of you may finally get a chance to pay for Hulu. The video Web site is finalizing its plans to launch its subscription service, and people familiar with the company say a beta test of "Hulu Plus" could launch as early as next week.

If you're in a select group, that is. One person familiar with the site, owned by a joint venture of broadcasters and Providence Equity Partners, says the initial test could be limited to 10,000 people.

The Hulu Plus pitch, as I've previously reported: $9.95 a month for access to … Read more